Just thought I’d post something quick about the new competition over at TIGSource. The theme this time is procedurally generated content, which is a great idea for a contest, in my opinion. I look forward to the creative entries that people will submit. The contest is over on June 2nd. I hope to get something done for it by then. We’ll see how it goes.

EDIT: TAWS Volume 5 has been completed for the contest. I hope to submit something more interesting as well, but I thought I’d throw that in there.

April was a slow month, I admit. It was as far as posting was concerned, anyway. However, progress continues! I could continue on to bore you with technical comments about the behind-the-scenes work that has been going into Rebound, but I won’t. Rest assured, improvements and advances are being made that contribute to the eventual working and enjoyable order of this game. Now, as much fun as it would be to whip out a screenshot or two for all to enjoy, it would be much more fun to whip out a video. This is not final material or anything, and I hope you’ll watch out for the programmer art (and the programmer music), but at least you can see how it’s starting to shape up.

Click here for a direct link to the video.

As everyone knows, I’m very much looking forward to the release of the independently created game known as World of Goo. As such, I was excited to see a new trailer which shows some new developments since the last one. Observe:

Oh, the excitement.

I’ve finished tying up loose ends from implementing Box2D version 2.0.0, which was released a while back. The new version implements some nice features which will help Rebound a bit. I’ve also completed some other nice improvements, which is best shown by a video, but since I haven’t made one (I will eventually, I hope), here’s a screenshot:

The swirly vortex thing in the background is a nice improvement over… black. I’ve also made some more progress on making the editor a bit more user-friendly. Hopefully I and some others will be able to make a few fun maps for this thing.

So I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks because there hasn’t been a whole lot of really interesting stuff to show. That, and I’ve been fairly busy with a few things, such as my XBox 360, among other things. Most of the work I’ve been doing on Rebound has been kind of boring… that is, the menu system. You can take a look if you want (watch out for that programmer art, again):

You can’t say I didn’t warn you. On the bright side, though, I’m just pretty close to finished with the menus, so I can get back to the fun stuff - and don’t worry, I’ll make them look better at some point. At least there are circular obstacles in there now.

I recently saw the new Battlefield: Heroes video, and I am looking forward to the game’s release this summer because, not only is it free (which goes a long way) but it looks like a pretty decent game. The cartoon, “good old” fun style really appeals to me. Of course, there’s also the drivable tanks and airplanes, matchmaking system and being able to sit on the airplane wings and shoot things. Yeah.

You can see the video at the Battlefield: Heroes website.

I’ve replaced some of the textures, and added a few graphics enhancements as well. See below:

There is an actual lighting system, that exists, so that’s a plus. The placeholder ball and target have been replaced with 3D spheres as well. Perhaps the most interesting new development, though, is the support for distance joints. Those are those lines you see connecting various objects on the screen. That’s right, that block just swung down there and whacked that other block right off its stand.

It has been interesting to work with Box2D, and make it all jive with the editor, and the rest of the game in turn. A good portion of my work on Rebound lately has been on the editor, and making it foolproof. I learn something new about Box2D very often, and I like the features it offers. I want to make this game as interesting and fun as possible, so if you have any suggestions for physical factors or support for other Box2D features, feel free to comment.

Rebound is getting some pretty particles. See the screenshot:

Some sparks are just starting to fly from the impact. There’s some fun physics stuff going on there too, I suppose. Rebound is generally progressing nicely. I plan to get some better quality textures in there soon, which should improve that burning itch you feel in your eyeballs. For now though, I hope you’ll excuse the programmer art.  I also hope to work on some general graphics improvements.  We’ll see how that goes.

Yes, the secret project is Rebound. Somewhat to my surprise, Rebound has received a lot of attention, despite originally being such a simple prototype. After hearing about people’s interest in it, I resumed work toward making Rebound into a full game. I have been making good progress on it, and showing how it’s coming along is actually worthwhile.

As you can see, the graphics in Rebound have also been improved since the prototype version, with more improvements to come. Instead of barely random levels which quickly become repetitive, as with the original Rebound prototype, the full version loads custom levels from files. It also includes a built-in map editor, so creating additional material will be easy. There are new elements to challenge the player, much more than the randomly placed obstacles in the prototype version. I will be posting updates about the development of Rebound periodically.

So you’re probably hoping I’ll get back around to something with… graphics. Not that there’s anything wrong with text-based games, but games with visuals are a lot easier to get into. Well, I have good news. I’ve been working on just such a project for some time. Hardware trouble had forced me to a different computer, which was a big reason for the text-based nature of the previous games. Now, I’m continuing to work on this new game. I’ll be showing it to you fully soon, but for now, here’s a tantalizingly vague cropped screenshot, as seems to be a tradition for almost-announced projects:

I know it’s not much, but that’s the idea. For now.